This blog features my weekly column called "What's up in the sky". It is published every Saturday in the Ellensburg newspaper, Daily Record (http://www.kvnews.com/). While my postings will be most accurate for Central Washington, readers throughout the northern USA may find something of use.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Saturday: Tonight’s Moon is new. Don’t bother looking for it. The new moon is the phase where the Moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun. Hence the side of the Moon facing Earth is not receiving any sunlight and cannot be seen. Typically a new Moon announcement is ho hum. But not during a meteor shower. The Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower is just coming down from peak numbers and should provide increased early morning meteors for the next three weeks. These meteors appear to come from a point in Aquarius near the star Delta Aquarii, also known as Skat. This point is about one and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 1 a.m. this week. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain a fist above Fomalhaut, the brightest star in that section of the sky.

Sunday: What are some of the signs of August? 1. Hot weather. 2. Back to school sales. 3. A chain email saying Mars will look as big as a full moon this month. The first two are true. The third one never was and never will be. In August of 2003, Mars was as close to Earth as it had been in all of written history. With the right telescope magnification, it could look as large as the moon without magnification. But, even then, Mars did not appear even as large as Jupiter always does. This year, Mars is about half its maximum apparent size. Mars is one and a half fists above the east-northeast horizon at 4 a.m.

Monday: In Scotland, August 1 was known as Lammas, the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. You can remember this by looking at Spica, named after the Latin word for “ear of wheat”, one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west-southwest horizon at 9:30 p.m. August 1 is known as a cross-quarter day, a day approximately half way between an equinox and a solstice.

Tuesday: Have you ever built a house? You probably had some material left over. If scientists studied that material, they could learn a lot about how your house was constructed, the origin of your house. In fact, studying the building scraps would probably teach them more about the origin of your house than if they studied your house in its current state. After all, your house has been repainted and remodeled. Asteroids are the leftover material from the origin of our Solar System. Scientists study them to learn more about how the Solar System was formed. The NASA probe called Dawn is orbiting Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. For more information about Dawn, go to http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/.

Wednesday: Saturn is one fist above the west-southwest horizon at 10 p.m., just above the nearly setting Moon.

Thursday: We read a lot about how kids nowadays are heavier than they used to be. You don’t read that about stars… until now. Last summer, astronomers from the European Southern Observatory discovered the most massive stars in the universe using their Very Large Telescope (yes, that’s its real name). These two stars are about 300 times more massive than the Sun or twice as massive as the largest stars previously known. In addition to being very massive, they are several million times brighter than our Sun. Their brightness compared to the Sun is the same as the Sun’s brightness compared to the full moon. Neither of these stars is visible from Ellensburg. For more information, go to http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1030/.

Friday: Jupiter is a half a fist above the east-northeast horizon at midnight.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Saturday: The Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks for the next few nights and early mornings with the greatest concentration of meteors being visible Friday night and Saturday morning. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Aquarius near the star Delta Aquarii, also known as Skat. This point is about one and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 1 am tomorrow morning. You can follow this point throughout the night as it will remain a fist above Fomalhaut, the brightest star in that section of the sky. This year, the Moon will be near the new phase meaning visibility will be maximized. As you Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

Sunday: Do you want an easy way to find due north? A compass points to magnetic north, which is a few degrees off of true geographic north. Well, tonight’s your night. Capella, the brightest star in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer, is due north at exactly 10:14 p.m. It looks like a bright light on a pole on the north ridge because is only about one degree above the horizon.

Monday: Say "Cheese". 159 years ago this month, Vega, in the constellation Lyra the lyre, became the first star ever photographed. The photograph was done at the Harvard Observatory using the daguerreotype process. Vega is the third brightest nighttime star we can see in Ellensburg behind Sirius and Arcturus. Vega is nearly straight overhead at 11:00 tonight.

Tuesday: Hercules stands directly overhead this evening. Four moderately bright stars form a lopsided square that represents his body, while his head points southward. The monsters he has dispatched such as Hydra the water snake surround him.

Wednesday: The recently completed sequel to the musical “South Pacific” called “Viewing the South Pacific Sky” will be opening this morning on the island of Tahiti. Critics are raving about the remake of the song “Some Enchanted Evening with the lyrics “some enchanted evening, you may see an occultation, you may see an occultation across a crowded sky.” Just before sunrise this morning in Tahiti, the Moon will pass in front of Mars and block it from view. This is called an occultation. As viewed from Central Washington, Mars will be a couple finger widths to the lower left of the Moon at 5 a.m. and not be blocked by it.

Thursday: Saturn is one fist above the west-southwest horizon at 10 p.m.

Friday: It’s Friday night. You like to stay up late. Why not make it productive and look at the planet Jupiter and its largest moons. Jupiter is one fist above the east horizon at 1 a.m. tonight. With binoculars and a steady mount such as a tripod or the shoulders of a friend, you can see two to four of Jupiter’s Galilean moons.

Wait a minute. We got all the way to the end of the week with no Moon phase summary? How can that be? There are 29.5 days between the same Moon phase in two different cycles. That means about 7.5 days between the phases new, first quarter, full and last quarter. Since a week is seven days, there are some weeks in which none of the main phases occur. This week, the Moon was always in the waning crescent phase.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Saturday: The NASA probe called Dawn will enter into orbit around the asteroid Vesta today. Launched in September 2007, Dawn will orbit Vesta for one year, mapping the surface and determining exactly what Vesta is made of. Since asteroids don’t undergo nearly as much surface change as planets, they preserve the important evidence of how the solar system was formed. By comparison, the Earth’s surface is extremely young. For more information about Dawn and Vesta, go to http://goo.gl/LViWl.

Sunday: Being in a coma is a bad thing. Looking at the Coma Star Cluster is a good thing. The Coma Star Cluster is an open cluster of about 50 stars that takes up more space in the sky than 10 full Moons. It looks like a fuzzy patch with the naked eye. Binoculars reveal dozens of sparkling stars. A telescope actually diminishes from the spectacle because the cluster is so big and the telescope’s field of view is so small. The Coma Star Cluster is in the faint constellation Coma Berenices (ba-ron-ice’-ez) or Queen Berenice’s hair. Queen Berenice of Egypt cut off her beautiful hair as a sacrifice to the gods for the safe return of her husband Ptolemy III from battle. The Coma Star Cluster is about four fists held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 10:30 p.m.

Monday: Mercury is less than a half a fist above the west-northwest horizon at 9:30 p.m. The slightly dimmer star Regulus is about one fist to the upper left of Mercury. This week is the best week for viewing Mercury in the evening sky for the next few months. After this Wednesday, it will move toward the Sun in the sky, soon being lost in the Sun’s glare.

Tuesday: If you want to show your loved ones a celestial sign that they should hang up their clothes, show them Brocchi's Cluster, commonly known as the Coat Hanger cluster because of its resemblance to an upside down coat hanger. The cluster is six fists above the southeast horizon at 10:30 p.m., midway between Altair and Vega, the two brightest stars in the Summer Triangle. You'll need binoculars to make out the shape. First find Altair four fists above the southeast horizon. Slowly move your binoculars up toward Vega. You will run into the coat hanger along the way. And while you are at it, put away your shoes.

Wednesday: Take a two and a half hour walk. Too long, you say? Forty-two years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first ever walk by humans on another world. They spend two and a half hours setting up scientific instruments and collecting rocks for study back on Earth. Michael Collins orbited the Moon in the spacecraft the three astronauts would use to return to Earth.

Thursday: Saturn is two fists above the west-southwest horizon at 10 p.m. The star Spica, which is nearly the same brightness as Saturn, is a fist and a half to the left of Saturn.

Friday: Shaula, the star that represents the stinger of Scorpius the scorpion, is a half a fist above due south at 11 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Saturday: At 10 p.m., the bright star Regulus is a little less than one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon. But, who is this Regulus? He has many potential identities. The most interesting from a pop culture standpoint is Regulus Black, the brother of Sirius Black who is Harry Potter’s godfather. Regulus Black was a former follower of Voldemort, the bad guy of the Harry Potter series. However, Regulus tried to dissociate himself from Voldemort and was killed. He would be in the pile of forgotten Harry Potter characters except that he is so interesting. Also, in the sixth book, Harry found an important note written by someone known only by the initials R.A.B. Humm. R.A.B. Regulus A. Black perhaps? If you’re too lazy to read the books to learn more about R.A.B., the final Harry Potter movie called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, is coming out this Friday.

Sunday: But what does the “A” stand for? Anthony? Abercrombie? Alfonzo? Not astronomical enough. It stands for Arcturus, the second brightest star visible in the nighttime sky in Washington and at Hogwarts. Arcturus is five fists above the southwest horizon at 10 a.m. The bright star Spica and Saturn are halfway between Arcturus and the southwest horizon and about a fist and a half from each other. Spica is the slightly brighter object on the left within the pair.

Monday: Bellatrix Lestrange is Sirius Black’s cousin. But, far from being kissing cousins. They are killing cousins. Bellatrix kills Sirius in a fight at the Ministry of Magic. Bellatrix the star is the third brightest star in the constellation Orion the hunter. You can find it a half a fist above the east horizon at 4:30 am. But, don’t turn you back on it!

Tuesday: Of course, Bellatrix is in cahoots with “he who must not be named”. Now, that’s a poor sentence, using an obscure synonym for “conspiring” and a non-specific reference. I must be under the curse “writicus dreadfulium”. Clearly this is the work of Tom Riddle, whose mother is named Merope Gaunt. Merope is a star in the Pleiades, an open star cluster about two fists above the east-northeast horizon at 4 a.m.

Wednesday: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter’s young nemesis, is related to Sirius Black. Draco’s mother, Narcissa Black (Sirius’ cousin) helped develop a plan to trap Harry at the Ministry of Magic in the fifth book. Draco’s namesake, the constellation Draco the dragon is one of the largest constellations in the sky, winding around the North Star. Draco’s head is a four-sided figure nearly straight overhead at 11 p.m.

Thursday: The full Luna Lovegood is in the constellation Sagittarius the archer tonight. Happy Potter’s friend, Moon, once again helps him battle Lord Voldemort. Oops, did I mix up those names?

Friday: Not every woman in the Black family is evil. Andromeda Black, Bellatrix’s sister, is a good witch and the mother of Tonks, a young witch from the last few Harry Potter books. (If these Harry Potter references are confusing, talk to a young adolescent about them.) Andromeda the constellation is an interesting one. It contains the Andromeda galaxy, the most distant object visible with the naked eye from a dark site. To locate the Andromeda Galaxy, first find the Great Square of Pegasus. At 11:00 p.m., the left hand corner of the square is about two fists above the east-northeast horizon. Less than two fists to the left and down a little bit is another star the same brightness as the star at the corner of the square. From that star, hop about a half a fist up to a star that is about one fourth as bright. Less than another half fist in the same direction is a fuzzy oval patch of light known as the Andromeda Galaxy. The galaxy is impressive to see in binoculars. It consists of about 400 billion stars and is 2.2 million light years away.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week.